Top Brands: Sphero - Wonder Workshop - Makeblock - Amazon Kids
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
NEWS$show=/search/label/news
Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.
REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review
Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family.
There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for?
We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.
GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.
PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project
Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.
STEM$show=/search/label/stem
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.
CODING$show=/search/label/coding
Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.
ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics
We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware.
Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions.
Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.
ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics
We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them.
Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available.
Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.
MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making
We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun.
The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something.
We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.
So it's world handwriting day. Why the obsession with handwriting? Surely it's much more important that modern children learn how to touch type than produce cursive handwriting?
In many parts of the world, cursive handwriting is no longer taught. But in the UK there's a huge focus on it. I wonder how many hours children spend practising cursive handwriting in primary schools. It's a lot. There's no focus on typing or keyboard skills, they are not mentioned in the National Curriculum.
Now I'll agree that at the moment it's useful for everyone to have basic hand-writing skills. I do scribble down the occasional note (often an email address or phone number!) and sometimes end up having to fill in a paper form. But beyond that, I struggle to see the real-life value.
Handwriting only really seems to be a thing in schools. This is because children don't have routine access to technology and because they need to be able to produce large amounts of hand-written text quickly in exams. So yes, at the moment children do need to be able to produce large volumes of legible hand-writing. But we should accept it for what it is - an internal requirement that school places on children, not a skill that's useful long-term.
Elbrie has written previously about how her son struggled to physically write his exams because by then he was used to producing work on a computer whenever possible.
It's going to take a while to reach the point where handwriting isn't necessary in school but we shouldn't pretend that it has value to the majority of children outside of school.
When I was at school we had to write with ink pens and cartridges and use blotting paper. The ballpoint pen was well-established in the outside world but schools persisted with messy and inconvenient fountain pens long after they become an infrequent sight outside school.
Despite spending huge amounts of time trying to learn to write at least legibly, if not neatly, my handwriting is now awful, I have to write really slowly for it to be acceptable and my hand hurts if I ever try to write more than a paragraph. Being able to write quickly and neatly is a skill you need to practice if you want to keep it. This makes it even less worthwhile to learn at school.
Calligraphy is a lovely hobby, but it's a hobby. Cursive handwriting is headed in the same direction.
Both of my children struggle with handwriting. The older one struggles with legibility and the younger one struggles with speed. It's frustrating for both of them and particularly so when they see that handwriting isn't used in the adult world. At home, they both reach for a laptop if they want to write something. My 11-year-old is now reasonable at typing and the 9-year-old is keen to practice. We'd recommend BBC Dance Mat Typing for younger kids and Epistory for tweens and teens.
I often see the argument that handwriting is good for fine-motor skills. This is important in the age of tablet devices and less real-world play. But handwriting isn't the only way to develop those skills. Wouldn't it make more sense to develop fine motor skills alongside other skills that are actually useful?
I've also heard arguments that it improves literacy but I'm not convinced. My children hate having to write on paper at school because it's difficult to structure their work and they stick with poor choices because it's hard to make changes. When they work electronically they are much more ambitious and also happier with the result because they can easily make improvements. I can't imagine trying to write a blog post by hand! The resulting order of this post is nothing like the order in which I wrote it.
My kids also appreciate having ready access to a spell-checker and thesaurus when working electronically. The correct spelling is readily available and the more they see the correct spelling the more likely they are to be able to come up with it without help next time. At school, they spend a lot more time looking at their own incorrect spellings, only getting feedback later.
On a computer, kids get to focus on the creative aspects of writing that people are still, just about, better at. When these children are trying to compete with robots for jobs I don't think anyone will be saying, well you cost 10 times as much but you do have beautiful handwriting.
Typing, on the other hand, is still very useful. There's no sign of an effective replacement. Voice recognition is useful for some situations but it has been reasonably effective for some time now and hasn't replaced typing for most people.
Teaching children to touch type takes much less time than teaching them to produce beautiful cursive handwriting. It's also a skill that they're likely to keep and they will make use of it.
Typing is a hugely important skill for communicating in the modern age. I'd like to see touch typing taught in primary schools. Never mind whether kids have got their pen license, let's have them trying to improve their typing speed.
One additional reason that I'm keen to see children learn to touch type is that it's one of the prereqs for using text-based programming languages. I'm in no hurry to move kids on from graphical languages but there comes a point when kids are ready to try a text-based programming language and it's really frustrating if they can't type reasonably quickly and accurately.
What do you think?
Stay tuned for some way to help teach your children to type using games, coding and kid-sized keyboards!
/fa-fire/ MONTH TRENDING$type=list
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At Tech Age Kids we've been testing and writing about kids coding toys for over 10 years. This post is our round up of the current optio...
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I asked my kids what they wanted to do, other than playing Minecraft, over a long weekend. Not that I didn't want them playing Minecraf...
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/fa-dice/ RANDOM$type=blogging$m=0$cate=0$sn=0$rm=0$c=3$va=0$src=random-posts
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- accessories
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- adafruit
- advent calendar
- adventure games
- amazon
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- amazon prime
- android
- angry birds
- animation
- anki
- app
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- app toys
- appcessories
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- apps
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- architecture
- arckit
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- astronomy
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- automaton
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- battling robots
- bedtime
- big kids
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- bigtrak
- bike
- binary
- birthday
- bitsbox
- black friday
- blockly
- blogging
- bloxels
- bluetooth
- board games
- book
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- breadboard
- bricks
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- card game
- careers
- catroid
- celebration
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- ces
- chemistry
- chess
- christmas
- circuit cubes
- circuit playground
- circuit scribe
- cleaning
- climbing
- code clubs
- code-a-pillar
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- connected toys
- construction
- conversational ai
- cozmo
- craft
- craft cutter
- creative thinking
- creativity
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- crowdfunding
- css
- cubs
- curiosity
- curious chip
- cyber monday
- dads
- data
- deals
- dens
- design
- design process
- design thinking
- digital parenting
- digital skills
- disability
- disney infinity
- dog tech
- dolls
- drawing
- drones
- duinokit
- earth day
- Easter
- ebooks
- eco
- edblocks
- edison
- edtech
- education
- egypt
- electricity
- electronic pets
- electronic toys
- electronics
- electronics kit
- electronics kits
- electtronics
- elementary
- elenco
- energy
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- entertainment
- ereader
- ereaders
- esafety
- escape the room
- event
- ewriter
- exercise
- family
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- fathers day
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- fiction
- fire
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- fitness tracker
- flotilla
- flow charts
- flutterbye fairy
- flying
- force awakens
- force friday
- future
- gadgets
- games
- games console
- games consoles
- gaming
- gift guide
- gifts
- girls
- giveaway
- glow in the dark
- grace hopper
- grove
- hackaball
- hacksoton
- halloween
- halloween costumes
- hardware
- headphones
- health
- hexbug
- hexbug aquabots
- hexbug project
- high school
- history
- home
- home education
- homeschool
- hot toys
- hour of code
- html
- humanoid
- ICT
- in app purchasing
- indiegogo
- industry event
- innotab
- innotab 3
- innotab 3s
- internet access
- interviews
- invention
- ios
- IoT
- ipad
- ipad mini
- iphone
- jacquard
- japan
- java
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- k'nex
- k'nex robotics
- kano
- keyboard
- kickstarter
- kids
- kindle
- kindle fire
- kit
- kits
- kodu
- kubo
- label printer
- languages
- laptop
- laptops
- last minute
- leap motion
- leapfrog
- leappad
- leappad 2
- leappad ultra
- leappad2
- leapreader
- learning
- learning resources
- learning tablet
- learning tablets
- leds
- lego
- lego boost
- lego chain reactions
- lego mindstorms ev3
- lego power functions
- lego technic
- lego wedo
- let's start coding
- lights
- lightseekers
- little kids
- littlebits
- logiblocs
- logic
- logical thinking
- loom
- machines
- magnetic
- make it
- makeblock
- makedo
- maker
- makey makey
- making
- mardles
- mars
- mars rover
- marty
- math
- maths
- mbot
- mbot ranger
- me arm
- meccano
- meccanoid
- meccanoid 2.0
- merge vr
- mews
- michael faraday
- micro:bit
- microbit
- microcontroller
- microscope
- microsoft
- middle school
- miles kelly
- mindstorms
- minecraft
- minecraft mods
- mixed reality
- mobile
- modular electronics
- monsters university
- morse code
- mothers day
- motion capture
- motors
- mover kit
- movie
- movies
- mu
- mu toys
- munzee
- music
- my first robot
- national dog day
- nature
- new
- new year
- news
- news coding
- nikola tesla
- nintendo
- nintendo switch
- ohbot
- ollie
- on the web
- opinion
- origami
- osmo
- outdoors
- ouya
- ozobot
- papercraft
- paperwhite
- parental controls
- parenting
- parrot
- pc
- people
- pet tech
- pets
- phone
- photography
- photon
- physics
- pi day
- picks
- pimoroni
- pinoccio
- pixel kit
- pixelart
- play
- playstation 4
- plezmo
- pocket code
- pocket money
- pokemon
- pokemon go
- poll
- pre order
- pre-teens
- prehistory
- preschoolers
- primary
- printable
- products
- professor einstein
- programming
- project
- projects
- puzzles
- python
- racing
- raspberry pi
- reading
- reivew
- remote control
- research
- resource
- resources
- retro
- review
- rights
- robot
- robot dog
- robot fish
- robot wars
- ROBOTERRA
- roboticals
- robotics
- robots
- role models
- role play
- romo
- romotive
- root
- rover
- safety
- sam labs
- samuel morse
- sandbox
- schools
- science
- scratch
- scratchjr
- screen time
- screenless
- screens
- sensors
- servos
- simbrix
- skills
- skylanders
- skylanders superchargers
- skylanders swap force
- smart pens
- smartphone
- smartwatch
- snap circuits
- social media
- solar power
- soldering
- sonic pi
- sony koov
- sound
- space
- sparki
- speaker
- speech sythesis
- sphero
- sphero mini
- spider
- star wars
- stars
- STEAM
- stem
- stikbot
- stop motion
- stop motion studio
- storage
- story
- strawbees
- students
- subscription
- subscriptions
- sugru
- summer
- swift
- tablet
- tablets
- tangible coding
- tech
- tech age
- tech craft
- tech is bad
- tech is good
- tech toys
- tech will save us
- technology
- technology will save us
- teens
- teknikio
- tekno
- teksta
- tenka labs
- tesla
- textiles
- thames & kosmos
- the extraordinaires
- tim berners lee
- tinkercad
- tinybop
- toddlers
- toot-toot
- top pick
- touch
- toy
- toys
- travelling
- TTS
- TV
- tween
- tweens
- tynker
- typing
- ux
- vehicles
- videos
- view-master
- views
- virtual reality
- voice assistants
- voice recognition
- vr
- vtech
- web
- websites
- wifi
- wii
- wii u
- windows 8
- wonder workshop
- wowwee
- writing
- writing. education
- xbox one
- xyzprinting